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Venom should have been a home run. The legendary Spider-Man villain has an extensive history in comic books, has been adapted to animation, and sells millions of toys. Buy why, after 4 feature film appearances, have we not gotten a faithful adaptation of Venom? With Tom Hardy's Venom trilogy coming to a close with less than negative reviews, it begs the question, will we ever get a decent Venom appearance in a movie? Even more, will Venom ever grace the screen with the MCU's version of Spider-Man?
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What the hell are you
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I am Venom, and you are mine. Spider-Man is one of Marvel's most beloved characters
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Just like all great heroes, the villains who inhabit his Spider-Verse are big, bold, and deadly
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And since his debut in the 1980s, Venom reigns as one of Spidey's greatest threats
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But with four troubled film appearances and counting, it seems like we may never see a proper Venom on the big screen
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But why? When Spider-Man first swung into the pages of Marvel Comics in 1962
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creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko never could have anticipated the staying power of the wall crawler
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With thousands of comic issues, dozens of TV shows, and several film appearances
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the red and blue web-slinger has had his fair share of changes over the years. From futuristic enhancements to multiverse reflections, mutated abominations, and rebel yells
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Spider-Man's suits evolve and change with the times. In fact, according to Ditko, an orange and purple color scheme was initially considered for the character
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but the first official new Spidey look came in the form of a now infamous black suit
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Debuting in The Amazing Spider-Man issue number 252, the black suit gave new meaning to the phrase strange bedfellows
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Rather than a simple costume change, the black suit is a living extraterrestrial being known as a symbiote
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Seeking a host to feed from, the symbiote attached itself to Spider-Man during the secret war, thus creating a higher-powered web crawler
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Fortunately for fans of the standard red and blues, the symbiote was eventually thwarted and forced to seek a new host
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After being expelled from Peter Parker, the symbiote came across a deeply troubled character named Eddie Brock
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Like a cursed mirror version of Peter Parker, Brock is a seedy journalist who bears more resemblance to Jake Gyllenhaal's Nightcrawler
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than our good-natured Daily Bugle photographer. In the shocking 300th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, Brock accuses an innocent man of being a serial killer
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But when Peter Parker himself exposes the true murderer, Brock's career and reputation comes to a grinding halt
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In a moment of desperation, the disgraced hack is taken over by the dreaded symbiote
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and when Brock and the symbiote combine, their shared hatred for Peter Parker blooms like a corpse flower
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And thus, the Venom we know and love was born. Fans of the comic series had never seen anything quite like Venom And although Marvel Comics fans had been treated to Todd McFarlane exaggerated brooding style before nothing could prepare them for the brutal terror of his latest creation Unlike some of Spidey arch Venom is
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an absolute terror. He's huge, he's insane, and yes, he will eat you. McFarlane's rendering of
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the character was taken to even wilder realms when Mark Bagley took over Venom in the early 90s
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Armed with bigger bulk, sharper teeth, and that familiar slimy tongue, Bagley's run on The Amazing Spider-Man provides the backbone for Venom's signature look
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Those striking features were brilliantly executed on the Spider-Man animated series from the mid-90s
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With tons of menace, this portrayal of Venom was as perfect as you could expect for a half-hour show
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Venom also appeared in the short-lived Ultimate Spider-Man series, which was sadly the last time the character was faithfully rendered
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In Venom, many comic fans found a villain they could relate to on some primal level
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Inside all of us, there is a fear that we cannot achieve the dreams we once chased
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and that there are Peter Parkers out there who can be the hero and a professional all at once
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Like Eddie Brock, we can fall victim to dangerous shortcuts in life, or the human urge to get revenge on those who wronged us
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But even a goody two-shoes like Peter Parker has to admit, Venom just looks cool
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When Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man film came to theaters in 2002, audiences were treated to a fairly faithful adaptation
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Although both Spider-Man and its sequel contained two of Spidey's most infamous villains
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Marvel readers begged for the future inclusion of Venom. With so many fans of the black-clad Goliath in tow
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you'd think a Venom appearance in Spider-Man 3 would be a no-brainer. But in truth, director Sam Raimi had no interest in the character
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In fact, many believe Venom's inclusion was forced by the studio. Knowing the fraught nature of Spider-Man 3
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it is perhaps no surprise that Raimi's take on Venom was a disaster
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The 2007 film has plenty of problems. An overstuffed cast, convoluted plots, and a truly cringeworthy showcase of the black
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Spidey suit, but none of these issues are as glaring as Venom
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For one, Venom shows up for a measly few minutes, despite enormous hype
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Add to that an entire characterization that feels more like Smeagol wrapped in black than
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a hulking menace, less of a thread than a minor distraction, and unfortunately, a villain
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about three feet too short and devoid of any stakes. As negative fan responses to Raimi final Spider film poured in Marvel entered a new phase as a company Prior to the formation of the MCU Marvel films had been doled out to Sony through Wright contracts So while the MCU formed its Avengers Sony started the Amazing Spider films
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And after the lukewarm reception of two Amazing Spideys, the MCU brought their web slinger home
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Under new guidelines, the MCU regained Spider-Man, while Sony was relegated to
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Spider-Verse sidekicks and villains. Because of these restrictions, Sony forged new ways to get
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the most bang for their webby bucks. When Venom was announced as a standalone film, fans of the
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character could not have been more ready. Despite being burned by a previous franchise and an unmade
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Dolph Lundgren vehicle in the 90s, Venom's stans were ready to forgive. Once it was revealed that
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genre flick favorite Tom Hardy would star as the titular terror, excitement reached critical mass
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And for good reason. In early interviews, director Ruben Fleischer expressed his desire to give
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audiences the real deal, telling audiences it would be the most violent Marvel film of all time
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But then, like a black cloud descending from space, the ratings board announced that Venom had received a PG-13
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When it was revealed that the teeth were yanked from Venom, Hardy expressed some resentment of his own
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There's a lot in the real estate that you can actually imbue with a complete sense of gratuitous ultraviolence
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Hardy's estimation of fans seeking adult material wasn't without merit. 2016's Deadpool and the beloved Netflix Punisher series proved that Marvel fans relished in comic-accurate violence, but unfortunately, Sony disagreed
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When Venom was released in 2018, audiences turned out in droves. Perhaps bolstered by the success of the MCU's Spider-Man
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or the vague notion the two might appear on screen, the film was a financial success
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Unfortunately for those who showed up to see their favorite monsters smash and thrash, Venom suffered from more than just a kid-friendly rating
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I'm so sorry about your friends. Despite Hardy's claims of bringing Venom to life, his choices as Eddie Brock are downright confusing
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Sure, there's a sleazy energy to his down-in-the-dumps journal, but did anybody ask for improv humor
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Hey, Jesus! This is dead. And for a film called Venom, The Dark Abomination barely gets any real screen time
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Instead, we're subjected to bizarre buddy comedy scenarios. Parasite! Yeah, it's the term of endearment, that's all
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Apologize! No. Apologize! All right fine I sorry More like a deranged married couple than a monolith of horror Venom is certainly the strangest comic adaptation of all time Although some audiences found the first outing to be a fun albeit empty ride others felt like they had once again been betrayed
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But even the most hardened hearts were somewhat softened by the film's mid-credits shocker
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There's gonna be carnage. For those in the know, the reveal of Woody Harrelson as serial killer Cletus Kasady seemed like a premonition of darker things to come
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In Marvel Comics, Cassidy eventually becomes the symbiotic mega-threat known as Carnage
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a character who lives and breathes ultra-violence. The idea that Carnage and Venom could be fully unbridled in a future installment carried the potential for true mayhem
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Add to that Hardy's social media posts of Venom devouring Spider-Man, and it seemed like things were going to get real in the Sony Spider-Verse
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But once again, Sony had other ideas. When Venom Let There Be Carnage was announced as another PG-13 outing
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most Venom fans simply lost all hope, and this time, returning star Tom Hardy seemed to accept
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the watered-down version of everyone's favorite monster. You read the comic books and it's extreme
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but that's not what we're here to do. And hey, the guy isn't totally wrong. Though the Venom
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sequel took in just half the box office haul of the original, the film was still a financial
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success. Despite more zany antics and poor takes on beloved comic characters, audiences turned out
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once again. Throughout the years, Venom has seen his fair share of comic series as well
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And much like the films, these updates to the character are strange
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From anti-heroes to father-son duos and even a literal god, these takes on Venom yield high readership and extremely mixed reactions
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From dual box office hits to multiple successful comic runs, the proof is in the black gooey pudding
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Venom is a character people want to see. His tongue-wagging, teeth-chomping exploits have captured our attention for decades
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and it's clear we want more. But knowing what audiences and readers crave is only half the battle
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At this point, does anyone expect a quality outing from the studio that gave us this
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Allow me to introduce the phalanges. The metacarpals. And the pretty little stinky pinky
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Even with Venom the last dance just over the horizon, it's hard to believe the character can ever truly rise again
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But with ever-changing rights contracts, R-rated comic hits, and more poor prospects for Sony, perhaps one day the twins will change
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And maybe, just maybe, we'll all get the Venom we deserve